Mask Of The Underworld
by Deadpool Brit
Summary: Rick Master is 16 and knows that he's a demi-god, but doesn't know who his father is. He is sent to Camp Half-Blood. Once there he gets a gift from his father. Little does he know that this gift will change his world, and force him to Hades and back.


**A.N. Hey there. It's Deadpool-Wolf here. This is my second story; it's also a new series, so please review.**

**This story is set between The Last Olympian and The Lost Hero.**

**I do not own anything, only Rick Master and my imagination.**

**On with the story.**

_**First Fight **_

"On my way to camp. On my way to camp. Singing on my way to camp. Singing as I'm walking." I sung as I walked along Long Island to Camp Half-Blood with Bob the Satyr, the sun was setting. My short unkempt blond hair slightly getting in my eyes. Some people say that when I get angry my eyes turn colour from blue to red, which is crazy. Nobody's eyes are red.

"You know Rick, you've got a good singing voice, some people in camp will be really jealous of you." Bob said.

"Yeah, maybe." I murmured. "It must come from Apollo."

"Wait, you know who your godly parent is?"

"Nah, he's supposedly my great-great grandfather or something."

"Wow, two gods in the family that's new."

"Yeah, I guess. I should really get these family things checked out. We nearly there?"

"It's just up this hill." He indicated to the steep hill on our left.

"Fine at least we're almost there." I said then I started singing. "England to America. Manchester to Long Island."

"Yeah, yeah. Come on let's get there before something attacks us." Bob sounded nervous.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"S-Something's coming." He muttered looking around wildly.

"Oh, come on, you're just nervous."

"I can smell monsters nearby."

"Monsters? Are you sur-" I started before three rhino sized black mastiffs with glowing red eyes appeared out of the shadows. "Oh fuck."

They charged at me and Bob. I pushed him out of the way and dived to the side.

"GO GET HELP! I'LL HOLD THEM OFF!" I yelled at him, standing up and pulling out a Celestial Bronze combat knife that my step-dad gave me before leaving. He didn't tell me where he had got it; merely that he had forged it himself. It had been a bitch to smuggle past airport security.

"YOU CAN'T KILL THEM ALL!" He yelled back at me already ready to bolt.

"I'LL HOLD THEM OFF! GO!" He took off.

One of the dogs looked towards Bob. "HEY! FURBRAIN!" I yelled scooping up a stone and throwing it at the animal, hitting it in the eye. The blood that squirted out of its eye as it yelped was strangely calming.

It turned to me and charged. I let training take over. As it closed in I ran towards it, dropped into a slide and cut along its legs. Its legs collapsed from under it and it skidded along the ground into a tree. It hit its head and didn't move.

I turned around to see another dog jumping towards me. I jumped back, barely avoiding the attack and stuck my knife in one eye and my fist in the other. It wailed in pain and swiped at me. I ducked leaving my knife in its eye. I straightened up snatched my knife back and kicking it in the jaw. It slumped to the ground, I stabbed it in the head and it turned to dust.

"Damn." I muttered in awe.

I turned to the last dog. It jumped at me and knocked me to the ground standing over me ready to bite. I stabbed its leg quickly five times; I pushed myself down towards its stomach and sunk my knife into its chest. It gave a howl before turning to dust.

I got up walked over to the last dog and plunged my knife into its brain. It disintegrated into dust.

I sat down by the tree breathing heavily trying to get my breath back when six more dogs jumped out of the shadows.

"Oh for…fine, bring it on you little mutts." I grumbled, getting up.

I was about to charge when a group of boys and girls wearing orange shirts burst out of the woods and attacked the dogs.

One of the dogs jumped at me while I was still shocked at their sudden appearance and my head smacked the tree. Everything blacked out. When I opened my eyes again I was being carried over someone's shoulder into a house. I looked at the person carrying me and saw a tall, buff girl with unevenly cut brown hair and pig-like brown eyes.

I looked around the room. There were three men, one was in a wheelchair. He was middle-aged, had thinning brown hair, bushy eyebrows, intense brown eyes and a scruffy beard.

The second had a chubby face, a red nose and curly hair so black, it looked purple. He had purple, bloodshot eyes. He was wearing a tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt and purple running shoes.

The last man was the most imposing. He was tall, wore black jeans, combat boots, a leather duster and muscle shirt with a bulletproof vest, an iron padlock necklace and red tinted wraparound sunglasses that seemed to glow from the inside. He was handsome with scarred cheeks with an oiled crew cut. He had a bone mask in his hand.

As soon as the girl saw the big guy she dropped me on the floor.

"Ow. Hey, watch it girlie!" I growled at her, standing up.

She gave me one of the most violent glares I've ever seen.

"Did you practice that glare in the mirror? Or did it shatter when it saw your ugly mug?"

She raised a spear that I somehow didn't notice.

"ENOUGH!" The big guy yelled.

"Clarisse, please wait outside." The man in the wheelchair said.

"Yes Chiron." The girl 'Clarisse' said, leaving.

"So." I said. "I guess you want to speak to me about something."

"Yes. But first I would like to know how you have survived this long." Chiron said.

"Sure." I said, pulling out my knife and cleaning it. "I'm guessing that you're the Chiron from the myths. The centaur who trains heroes. I take it that the myths of you dying were greatly exaggerated." I finished, sheathing my knife.

"Yes, I am. You seem well informed about me."

"Not really. I just like to read Greek myths. I always thought that they might not be myths, but real. At least some of them."

"Yes, well you were right. Where did you get that knife?" He pointed to the sheath on my belt.

"My step-dad made it for me. I don't know where he got the metal though."

"Hmm, interesting." Chiron murmured.

"Anyway. You want to know how I survived? It's a long and complex story. I've pretty much always known I was different. That and there's this rumor in the family that my great-great grandfather is a god. I don't know if it's true or not. I found out about demi-gods when my mum married someone. I was about ten. It turns out he's ex-S.A.S and a demi-god himself. He never told me who his godly parent was; he just made it clear it was a minor god. He told me that I might be a demi-god too. He and mum took care of any monsters that got too close. He trained me to fight and gave me the knife. Then a few days ago they both told me to pack essentials and come here. And that's my story."

"Well, that's certainly an interesting past."

"Yeah. Now who are those two? No disrespect intended. And what do you want?"

"Perhaps you could tell us your name first?"

"Oh, I'm Rick Master."

"Oh goody, another bratty so called hero." The one with the purple eyes muttered.

"Try not to take what Mr.D says too hard. He's not really a hero person." Chiron said. "He's still counting down the seconds until he can drink wine again."

"What do you mean 'till he can drink again'?" I asked.

"A stupid punishment for chasing a wood nymph. 50 more years without wine." Mr.D said miserably.

"Wine? 50 more years? Mr.D?" I muttered. "Dionysus?"

"Yes, yes, very good. Now leave me be."

I turned to the big guy.

He stuck out his hand. "Ares." He said.

I knew what he was going to do. As I shook his hand he squeezed my hand like a lemon. I tried not to show pain on my face. He let my hand go, smirking evilly.

"Not bad kid. But not good either." Ares said.

"Touché." I replied.

"Now the introductions are over, let us talk." Chiron said.

"Hang on." Ares said, and clicked his fingers.

Suddenly the floor beneath me started glowing red. I looked up and saw a spear surrounded by red light floating above my head.

"What's this mean?" I asked.

"That is a claiming. Son of Ares." Chiron said.

"Son of Ares? Cool, I guess."

"Here kid." Ares said, tossing over the mask he'd been holding. I caught it.

"Hmmm." I said examining it. "A ceremonial bone mask, difficult to say who made it, but I'd guess at the Aztecs."

"Put it on when you're near death or in the time of your greatest need. Now turn around." Ares told me. I did so and when I looked back he was gone.

"Where'd he go?" I asked confused.

"He teleported. Only he knows where he is." Chiron told me.

"So, you know anyone who might be able to help me research this mask?"

"Annabeth would be interested in helping you research. Clarisse you can come in now."

I turned around to see her come in.

"Clarisse, I would like you to take Rick here to see Annabeth." Chiron told her.

"Fine. You better keep up runt." She snarled.

(_Line Break_)

"Annabeth, Chiron wants you to speak to the new kid for some reason." Clarisse said as we reached a field with a girl that had long, curly blond hair pulled carelessly into a ponytail, stormy gray eyes that looked calculating, she had tanned skin, a very slim, great figure, and looked very athletic. "I'm out of here."

"Bye." Annabeth said. She turned to me. "So want does Chiron want me to speak to you about?"

"This thing." I said holding up the mask.

"Give it here." I passed it to her. "Seems like an Aztecan ceremonial bone mask."

"Yeah, I got that. I think there's something else though. I feel like it's watching me. Like a tiger stalking its prey."

"Where did you get it?"

"Ares gave it to me. He said something about putting it on when I'm near death. The weird thing is that he made it sound like it'd be soon."

"Why would Ares give you this? It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe he was trying to make up for lost birthday presents."

"You're a child of Ares? You're the first I've met that isn't a bully."

"Stereotypical much?"

"Well the Ares campers have an initiation where they dunk a new camper's head in the toilet."

"What, for everyone who's a new camper?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck."

"Hey, Clarisse's coming back over. Maybe she's coming over to dunk you."

"She's a child of Ares too?"

"Yep."

"So she's what? My half-sister?"

"You got it in one. Not bad for a son of Ares."

"Please stop mocking me."

"Rick." Clarisse said when she reached us.

"What?" I asked.

"Me. You. Arena. Fight. To the death."

"Okay, two things. One. Why has your speech devolved into caveman talk? Two. 'To the death'? No way. I'll fight you. But not to the death."

"Fine. This way." With that she led off.

"I can tell I'm going to regret this." I said to myself.

(_Line Break_)

I knew my arm was bleeding. Clarisse had cut it with her spear not five minutes ago. She somehow forgot to mention that it's electrified. My mask was by the arena wall. I was starting to wish I'd taken the offer of a sword instead of going with my knife. We'd been fighting for about fifteen minutes, and in that time it seemed like most of camp had gathered to watch us fight.

I backed up to the wall by my mask. She thrust her spear at me. I sidestepped and slashed at her face without thinking. Blood started pouring down her face.

"Clarisse!" I shouted shocked at what I'd done.

She looked at me, rage in her eyes. She pulled back her spear. I just stood there. Frozen by fear and by what I'd done. She thrust the spear at me again. I felt the spear go in through my stomach and back out the other side. Then I was being electrocuted. Suddenly it stopped. I dropped to the floor. I looked up and saw that Clarisse had snapped her spear, stopping the electricity, fear replacing the rage in her eyes. I grabbed the spear and yanked it out the way it had come in. I yelled in pain. I heard other people shouting. I lay into a pool of my blood. I looked over at the mask.

'_She took your life, Rick.' _I heard a man's voice. '_Clarisse La Rue…she took it all. Only thing you have left is your soul…and that belongs to me.' _I realised that it was the mask speaking. Apparently in my head, because no one else seemed to hear it.

_Wh-Who-? I thought._

'_Who am I? Let's just say I'm God; your God…least the only God that's listening right now. What do I want? Ah, same as any God; a little faith…for without faith I am nothing…and without me you're fucked.' _Its voice dropped to a whisper._ 'You don't have to die. I can help you; I can heal your wounds.' _Its voice rose back to normal as I grabbed it and my intestines fell out and turned to lie on my back._ 'We can help each other, if you show me some faith…if you trust me, if you put me on.' _ I figured it was better than dying, so I lifted it above my head and brought it down on my face.

It felt like there was acid in my veins. It was worse than being electrocuted and disembowelled. I felt my muscles swell and grow painfully. The blood on the ground leaped to my skin and travelled its way into my wound as it healed itself. I screamed in pain.

'_Aw, quite whining…did I say it was going to be fun?' _My arm grew to five times its normal size rippling with muscles, as did the rest of my body. My shirt ripped off and my pants ripped at the bottom but didn't rip past my knees._ 'You're going to have to learn to love the pain…there's a lot more of it to come.' _The pain stopped and I stood up and realised I'd grown. I was 6 foot before now I was easily 7 foot. Everyone was looking at me in shock. I looked down at myself.

"What have you done to me? What am I?" I asked. Then I shouted. "What am I?"

'_Alive, Rick. You're alive and you owe me.'_

Thunder roared. Yet there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and then I remembered what Ares said. "No I don't. You owe Ares don't you? What did he say you had to do?"

'_None of your business. But seeing as we're a team now how about this for a deal. You get me blood and I'll keep you alive, Ricky boy.'_

Suddenly there was a middle-aged man in front of me. He had an athletic figure-slim and fit with black curly hair and elfish features. He was wearing nylon running shorts and a New York City Marathon T-shirt. He walked up to me and whispered in my ear.

"Don't listen to it. It has to keep you alive anyway. And you can take it off any time you wish. It needs blood to live though. Luckily things have gone a bit strange with monsters. Instead of turning to dust when they get hit, they bleed now."

I realised he couldn't have whispered in my ear at his height. I watched him shrink to his original size as he walked to the centre of the arena.

'_Damn him.'_

"Shut up." I whispered.

"I have a message from Olympus!" The man yelled. "There is something strange going on with monsters! Instead of turning to dust after a hit with a weapon they are bleeding instead. And it takes sure death shots to kill them. Head shots, heart shots and decapitations work fine. Cutting off their balls and waving them in their face. Not so much, and it's painful for us guys to watch. Pass this message on to the other demi-gods and things will be fine." His voice then changed to a professional advertising voice. "This message was brought to you by 'Hermes Message Express'. For all your quick messages in an instant, call Hermes." He then gave a thumb up before disappearing.

'_Huh, must be that time of the month again.'_

"Do you ever stop talking?" I asked.

'_Only when there's blood being spilt.'_

"Typical." I turned to Clarisse. "Are you okay?"

"I feel dizzy."

'_You mortals are so fucking pathetic. One little cut and its "Ohhh, I feel dizzy." Don't any of you have any backbone?'_

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I shouted.

'_Ooh, seems like I stuck a nerve.'_

"Just shut up." I said. Picking up Clarisse in one arm and set off running to Chiron's house.

'_The Big House.'_

"What?" I asked as I ran across the fields.

'_It's not called "Chiron's house" it's called The Big House.'_

"Whatever."

'_Jump!'_

I reacted instantly, jumping 5 feet in the air, narrowly avoiding falling into a hole with spikes in the bottom.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

'_No problem. I just didn't want you getting injured.'_

"That seems too nice for you to do it for no reason."

'_Well if you got injured I'd have to get my blood out of your brain, but that'd turn you into a vegetable and then you wouldn't be able to kill, and I'd starve. You pathetic meat sack.'_

"There we go."

'_Yeah, yeah. I'm using you, you're using me. Guilt, guilt, whine, whine, moan, moan, slaughter, slaughter. Can we skip the first three stages and get straight to the slaughter?'_

"Let me thi-no." I said as I approached the Big House.

I knocked on the door with my free hand. A bit too hard because the door fell down. I walked in and got an arrow in the chest.

"Ow!" I looked to where the arrow had come from and saw Chiron. But he was different than last time. He was a white stallion from the waist down. He also had a bow and arrows in a quiver. He shot another arrow into my chest.

"Put her down and leave this place." I could hear the anger and protectiveness in his voice.

"Chiron, it's me, Rick." I said forcing my voice to be calm.

"Rick? How did this happen?" He asked, lowering the bow.

'_By having hot sex with my sister.'_

"By having ho-by putting on this mask." I corrected myself.

'_Ooh, so close.'_

"That doesn't matter. What matters is getting Clarisse to a doctor." I said.

"Let me see her." Chiron said. I put her down on a chair. He trotted over to her and examined her head.

"It's not a deep cut. It should heal fine." He left the room and when he came back he was holding a cup he held it to her lips. "Here, drink." He instructed.

She drank and then fell asleep.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"She'll be fine. But I'd like to know when this happened."

"During sparing, I guess it got a little out of hand."

'_You say out of hand. I say you majorly fucked up, Rick-O'_

"THAT'S IT! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I yelled.

"Rick? What's wrong?" Chiron asked gently.

"Chiron, it's this mask. It's alive. It's speaking to me. It won't shut up."

'_Hey, you put me on, you pay the price. And I'm not an "it" I'm a "he".'_

"Well speak through me then." I said, wanting some peace in my mind.

My mouth opened without me doing anything. Then I spoke in a voice that was not mine, but the mask's.

"**Not a bad idea kid. What you looking at pony boy? I haven't got any cyanide for you, so fuck off."**

"Chiron, I'm sorry it wasn't-" I apologised.

"There's no need to Rick. It clearly wasn't you. Although I think you should go outside and get some air. And you might want to remove those arrows." Chiron said.

I looked down at my chest and saw the two arrows he'd fired off. I pulled them out and saw blood run out of the wounds. But instead of falling to the floor the blood rose up past my neck and I guess onto the mask. I saw new flesh replace where I'd been hit.

"That's freaky." I said as I left.

**A.N. There we go. I know some characters might be a bit…off. But I'd need help with that. Please review bye.**


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